Religious and secular collective gatherings, perceived emotional synchrony and self-transcendent emotions: two longitudinal studies

Two quasi-experimental and longitudinal studies examined positive effects of participation in positively valence collective religious and secular activities. Collective emotional gatherings strengthen social cohesion, enhance personal and collective self-esteem, positive affect, and positive shared beliefs among participants, through processes of emotional synchrony. Furthermore, perceived emotional synchrony is associated with experiencing qualitatively different self-transcendent and enjoyment emotions. In Study 1 we compared the effects of participating in Sunday Mass and other secular Sunday activities on enhancement of transcendence beliefs and collective self-esteem and tested the mediational role of perceived emotional synchrony and self-transcendent and enjoyment emotions. In Study 2 serial mediational analyses supported a model in which perceived emotional synchrony increases self-transcendent and enjoyment emotions, which subsequently foster enhancement of positive outcomes (controlling for the baseline) of participation in ritualized folkloric event. The results are discussed from the perspective of neo-Durkheimian model of ritual, emphasizing the role of perceived emotional synchrony over self-trascendent emotions, and from a socio-cultural approach to well-being.